


Boldly We Go

by Kolivans (arka_r)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Trek Fusion, Family Drama, Family Feels, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 09:33:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16930761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arka_r/pseuds/Kolivans
Summary: Space, the final frontier.This is the story of Keith Kogane-Hawkins, who joined an all-Galran crew after withstanding a year of prejudice among non-Galran crew. His mission is to take his crew explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.Background ships: Kolivan/Zarkon, Thace/Ulaz, Krolia/Heath, Shiro/Allura





	Boldly We Go

**Author's Note:**

> thank you [aretia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aretia) and [revasnaslan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/revasnaslan) for the beta!
> 
> summary is butchered from star trek monologue.  
>  _Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before._

 

When Keith was assigned to the U.S.S. Altea roughly a year ago, the sight of space, _the final frontier_ , filled him with excitement. After all, _he was made for the stars_ , as his dad used to tell him. He was made for the infinity, for the danger and adventure, and for the freedom that it offered. That was why he joined Starfleet; to fulfill that childhood dream. That was why he became a pilot.

 

He was a fresh-faced newly-graduated ensign back then, and his head was still filled with the wonders of the unknown. He couldn’t wait to take his crew to explore the stars together, to dedicate his skills to his crew and his captain.

 

But that excitement soon was tainted by bad memories.

 

Now, a year later, sitting in a shuttle that was taking him to Earth Spacedock, to the U.S.S. Marmora, Keith was filled with anxiety. His anxiety was not without basis. This time, he was assigned to an all-Galra ship. And Keith was not a Full-Galra—he was only Part-Galra.

 

A ship solely crewed by a Galran crew wasn’t uncommon in Starfleet. It was more… _convenient_ for the Galra to band together. Even though it had been ten years since the Galra joined the United Federation of Planets, there was still distrust and prejudice from their Non-Galra allies. People were wary that they would turn against them, so the Galra took measures so they could serve in Starfleet in peace.

 

It was unfair, but that was just the way things were.

 

Keith thought he would be spared from all the prejudice when he enlisted, especially since he looked (mostly) Human, grew up in a Human colony, and was raised among Humans. He didn’t even know he was Part-Galra until one day when he came home purple after being bullied. His dad told him the whole thing that day, and told him that it was okay for him to be Part-Galra. But apparently, both he and his dad underestimated people’s capacity to hate those who were different from them.

 

He could handle hissed slurs and insults thrown in the corridors when no one was looking. Hell, he could even handle minor bullying every now and then—he was _used_ to that. But he couldn’t stand it when it came from his captain, _his own captain_ , the one he was supposed to serve and pledge loyalty to.

 

 

 

> _“All Galra cannot be trusted”, Captain Allura had spat, right there in the middle of the bridge, and Keith felt a stab in his chest at the mention of his other heritage. “Of course not you, Keith. I know you’re not like them. You’re not Full-Galra.”_

 

Shiro had tried to get him to report her to the admiralty, because this was _Starfleet_. Xenophobia was not allowed whether it was justified or not. But Keith refused.

 

 

 

> _“It’s her words against mine, Shiro”, he told the First Officer. “And don’t say that the other bridge crew will support me. You don’t know what they’ve been saying when you’re not looking.”_

 

He knew when he was fighting a losing battle. Allura was the daughter of a well-known Starfleet admiral. His words weighed nothing compared to hers. In the end, Keith left and Shiro, poor Shiro, couldn’t even do anything to stop him.

 

 

 

> _“I suggest you join Captain Kolivan’s crew”,_ Shiro had told him before he left. _“I know his Chief Medic, Ulaz. He was the one who saved me when I was captured by the Borg. All his crew are Galran.”_

 

Maybe it was because Shiro mentioned his time with the Borg—which was a painful experience for both of them. Maybe it was because of the look on Shiro’s face. So, for once, Keith did what he was suggested.

 

The shuttle landed in the U.S.S. Marmora’s shuttlebay with a slight jolt, and Keith gathered his belongings before walking down the ramp.

 

“Lieutenant Kogane-Hawkins?” a tall alien dressed in science blue uniform greeted him. Keith stood up straighter and gave the alien a nod. “My name is Antok, the First Officer and Chief Science Officer of the U.S.S. Marmora. I was told that we would be expecting you.”

 

Antok didn’t look Galran, Keith thought. His skin was greyish blue with frills on the side of his face and scars decorating his jaw. He had a tail too, thin and long with a tufted end. Antok flicked his tail and that was when Keith realized he had been staring.

 

“Half-Galra”, Antok said kindly, giving Keith a once-over before continuing. “And if you’re here, I assume you are too?”

 

“Yessir!” Keith felt relief and excitement—he wasn’t the only Part-Galra on board! “I’m, uh, part Human-Galra.”

 

“Welcome aboard, then. You’ll fit right in”, Antok said. “Now come, I’ll give you a tour of your new home.”

 

—

 

As they weaved through the corridors, Keith found that Antok wasn’t much of a talker, not that he minded it. Antok showed him around and Keith dutifully took a mental note to remember where things were. It was pretty easy since all Starfleet ships were made pretty much the same.

 

The Marmora, unlike the Altea which was a reconnaissance vessel, was a science vessel. It was smaller than the Altea and had smaller crew. The majority of it was still Galra, either Full-Galra or Part-Galra, but there were still a handful of Non-Galran crew on board, like their Chief Engineer who was a Bytor named Slav.

 

Eventually, Antok showed him his quarters, where he roomed with another Half-Galra named Regris. Antok also handed him a PADD, which was filled with everything he needed to know about his shift. After quickly skimming, Keith found that he was placed on alpha shift along with the Captain as well as the rest of the main bridge crew.

 

“Our last helmsman perished in our latest away mission”, Antok said bluntly and Keith looked up with a slight jolt of fear in his chest. “You are new, but the Captain read your record and found it impeccable. You were in alpha shift on the Altea too, correct?”

 

“Yessir”, Keith replied, ignoring the slight pang at the mention of his previous ship.

 

“Good”, Antok nodded, frills flaring. “Now, rest up. Your shift is in six hours. Don’t be late.”

 

With that, Antok left. Keith carried his bag into his quarters and placed it on the empty bed at the right side of the room. Regris’ bed had to be the one on the left, since the shelf above it was filled with various knickknacks.

 

The door swished open when Keith was about to start unpacking. He turned and saw a blue lizard-like Galra walked into the quarters. This one also had a tail—though it looked different from Antok’s. This Galra’s tail was thick and tipped with spikes near its end.

 

This had to be Regris.

 

“Hello! I was told to expect you. My name is Regrissur Raaya, but you can call me Regris”, the other Galra chirped. “You don’t look Galran. Actually, you looked more like Alteans with your—”

 

“—pointy ears?” Keith continued when Regris faltered. “Yeah, I… turn purple when I’m angry.”

 

“Okay, you’re definitely Galra”, Regris said with a firm nod. “Lots of Part-Galra I knew turn purple when they’re angry. Like Commander Antok, for example.”

 

“How many Part-Galra are there on this ship?” Keith asked, hoping that his voice was innocuous enough. Not innocuous enough, he though, as he saw a grin spread on Regris’ face.

 

“Oh this is going to be so much fun.”

 

As it turned out, there were exactly one hundred and seventy Part-Galra out of three hundred crewmembers aboard the Marmora. They came from various backgrounds too, like Chief Medic Ulaz who was part Altean or Lieutenant Faella who was part Romulan. There were more Part-Galra aboard the ship than any Galra he encountered growing up.

 

Keith stared at Regris with amazement at this newfound information, not knowing what to do with it. But then he realized that he had a shift in less than six hours, so he figured it would be best that he rested sooner rather than later. He bid Regris goodnight (was it even nighttime?) before tucking himself into the bed.

 

—

 

Six hours later, Keith followed Regris into the bridge, both of them wearing freshly-replicated command gold uniforms. Regris relieved Lieutenant Ilun on the tactical while Keith relieved Ensign Vrek on the helm.

 

Captain Kolivan arrived roughly ten minutes later, a cup of hraljata on one hand and a PADD on the other. They were tall and looked rather menacing with a large scar running over the right side of their face. Their mane was braided neatly and looped around their neck like a necklace.

 

“Captain on the bridge”, Regris announced.

 

“Thank you, Ensign”, replied the Captain as they took the central seat. “Open ship-wide communication, Lieutenant Thace.”

 

“Yes, Captain”, the Galra in communication red uniform replied. He had streaks of white on his mane and reddish-purple skin. “Channel is open, Captain.”

 

“Attention, U.S.S. Marmora crew. This is your captain speaking”, the Captain said as they leaned back to their chair. “Today we’re going to head to the Klafhar Nebula and map it out. I want all science labs to run at maximum capacity. The sooner we get the job done, the sooner we can move onto a more interesting mission. That is all. Kolivan out.”

 

Mapping a nebula didn’t sound bad for his first mission on the Marmora, Keith mused. In fact, it sounded almost boring. Not that he minded boring.

 

“Lieutenant Kogane-Hawkins”, the Captain called and Keith turned to face them. “That’s quite a mouthful. Do you have a preference for what we call you?”

 

“Uh. You can call me Keith, Sir”, Keith replied, blinking. On the Altea, everyone either called him ‘Kogane’ or ‘that half-Galra kid’—except Shiro, who called him by his name. But Shiro was always an exception.

 

“Alright, Keith. Set a course for the Klafhar Nebula”, the Captain said with a smirk.

 

Keith turned back to his console, a confident smile on his lips as he did as he was told. Pulling out the starmap, he plugged in the nebula’s coordinates and disengaged the initial dampeners, before looking up at the viewer in front of him. “Ready at your command, Captain.”

 

“Proceed”, Kolivan said.

 

Keith punched the warp drive.

 

Everything seemed to function normally. The ship hummed smoothly around him, a sign that the engineers had been taking a great care of the warp drive, and nothing seemed to be out of alignment. Keith let out the breath he didn’t realize was holding—his first time taking the Marmora into the warp was successful.

 

Things became less tense after that. While Keith continued to monitor his console in case things went out of alignment, he used the opportunity to sneak a glance around the bridge every now and then. There was the aforementioned Lieutenant Thace on the communication console and Commander Antok on the science console. They chatted casually as their hands worked on their respective consoles. Meanwhile the Captain was working on their PADD, their yeoman—a small female Galra named Nuala—was standing dutifully behind their chair.

 

“Pssst. Hey, Keith”, Regris hissed next to him. Keith turned his attention from his console to his roommate. Regris’ tail was swishing from side to side. “Do you want to go have lunch with me after the shift? The food replicator at the lounge can make the most amazing hrakul steak you’ll ever taste.”

 

“Sure”, Keith answered, not knowing where the sudden invitation came from. No one but Shiro (and by proxy Adam) had ever have asked him to have lunch together.

 

“We don’t have a lot of young bridge officers on board, you know”, Regris continued. “I was the youngest one around, and now there’s the two of us on the alpha shift. We have to stick together.”

 

Well, Keith thought that made sense. From what he’d seen, the other bridge officers on the Marmora was rather old—certainly way older than most bridge officers on the Altea. Keith thought back about how Allura was one of the youngest captains in Starfleet, before banishing the thought. They were no longer his crew, now, and Allura was no longer his captain. The thought was still too painful to think about.

 

“Sure, Regris”, Keith answered. “That would be nice.”

 

—

 

Roughly an hour later, the ship dropped out of warp.

 

The Klafhar Nebula was a densely-packed cosmic cloud with asteroid fields spreading inside the system. This would have been difficult, but Keith was confident that he could pilot the ship safely inside the asteroid field.

 

“Steady”, Kolivan warned, which was unnecessary as Keith was holding the ship steady as he navigated the ship in the asteroid field. “Antok, begin mapping the nebula. I want no rock left unscanned.”

 

“Affirmative, Captain”, Antok answered from his station before commanding his science officers to begin scanning the nebula.

 

It continued like that for the next three hours or so, and Keith was beginning to get tired from focusing non-stop. It was like the endurance simulation back at the Academy, where he would spend hours upon hours completing the simulation objective. He couldn’t wait until it was all over.

 

Finally, the mapping was over and the science labs were busy cataloguing their findings. Keith carefully took the Marmora out of the nebula, when Regris suddenly hissed, breaking Keith out of his concentration.

 

“Captain, Borg probes detected!” Regris cried out.

 

“Put them on screen”, Kolivan answered, suddenly alert.

 

Regris did as he was told, pulling the image of the Borg ships onto the main viewer. There were three of them, and by the look of it, they were simply passing through the area.

 

“They don’t seem to be attacking us”, Regris said. “Oh wait. They’re locking their weapons on our ship now.”

 

“Red alert! Battle stations!” Kolivan barked. “Shields up!”

 

Regris raised the shields just in time before the Borg’s attacks hit the ship. The Marmora shook and Keith immediately compensated with the thrusters so they wouldn’t crash onto the nearest asteroid.

 

“Shields at eighty percent, Captain!” Regris told Kolivan.

 

“Evasive maneuver!” Kolivan ordered.

 

The Borg ships were shooting beams again, but this time, Keith was ready. He immediately hit the throttle. The Marmora was _faster_ than the Altea, and it suited Keith’s piloting style more too. The ship weaved around and over the beams, before Keith took it to hide between the asteroids still scattered nearby.

 

Keith was not prepared when one of the Borg probes appeared right in front of the Marmora and began shooting beams. It hit the Marmora dead center and Keith was thrown out of his chair, his head hitting the railing as he fell.

 

“Keith!” Regris cried out; he was holding to his console like a lifesaver.

 

“Someone get his replacement!” Kolivan barked before turning to Keith. “Keith, report to the sickbay immediately!”

 

“I can still do it!” Keith argued as he tried to stand, but everything seemed to spin out of control. _Stars_ , he really picked the wrong moment to get a concussion.

 

“That’s an order, Lieutenant!” Kolivan said sharply, and Keith had no choice but to obey his captain. He walked unsteadily to the turbolift when it swished open, revealing a tall female Galra with purple-and-red hair and dressed in red uniform.

 

Keith’s eyes widened. He recognized her face.

 

“M-mom…?”


End file.
